No, Serape, you don't understand. I am not a football fan of the Chicago Bears. I'm an actual bear who lives in Chicago. My fur makes it very difficult to spend long periods of time in the kitchen, and with my claws, it's almost impossible to stir using a wooden spoon. I tried just using my claws, but it made the flavor of most dishes unacceptably gamey.
Oh, and my eyesight is brutal too. Have to depend on my sense of smell.
So I'm doing the best that I can, and poking fun at me with your grandmother as an example, well, it's hurtful to bears who try to cook._________________The goal is to fit it all in.

Joined: 18 Oct 2004Posts: 1654Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 12:30 pm Post subject:

Chicago Bear, How can you take the humidity out there with all that fur? Your idea to stuff the risotto with the calamari sounds great, good luck!_________________"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

My fur makes it very difficult to spend long periods of time in the kitchen, and with my claws, it's almost impossible to stir using a wooden spoon.

So instead you and your relatives prefer to invade our camp grounds looking for goodies hidden in our picnic baskets. Is that it?_________________' She says, 'I am the glamorous type.' I said, 'So what?'

Although I have been savouring C&Z for quite some time now, I am new to the forum. So, hello there! It's nice to be around people who share my love for food and its preparation.

I must say, risotto is one of the most comforting dishes you can eat or prepare. My personal fave is my seafood risotto, but I'm eager to try some of your recipes. So, the thing is, a friend brought be a wonderful bunch of fresh white asparagus. I immediately thought about risotto. The idea about salmon and asparagus seems appealing, but I was wondering, do you have any more suggestions?

Chicago Bear: I thought that was YOU! I went to school with your sister, she was fan-tastik with those pom-poms!

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"Hello Mr. Ranger, Sir! What do you have in that pic-a-nic basket, BooBoo?"_________________Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx

I had some leftover sage butter from a chicken dish I made the other night, so tonight I used that instead of regular butter for my risotto. I threw in a diced sweet potato as well, which started to break down a bit towards the end and colored the whole thing a very pretty shade of orange. It stayed together enough to still have nice chunks in the finished product, which I was very happy with. Parmesan and sweet potato work surprisingly nicely together, I think. A little bit sweet, a little bit savory, a little bit salty. Altogether: yum.

Hi - this is my first post here - why not start with one of my favorite foods -risotto -

I use diced sweet potatoes regularly in my risotto.
basically a typical white risotto with the addition of 1/3 cup diced sweet potatoes to 1 cup rice. I also season the onions and rice with a little curry powder prior to adding the first stock/wine.

cooking through to about 90% done with just stock/wine/butter
then adding heavy cream for 5 minutes and finishing with plenty parmesan or pecorino and salt and pepper to taste

Thank you for the recipe for apple risotto..... it was a hit! Have had a few requests for the recipe, which I have credited to you. Only thing I did change was that I used veg stock instead of chicken as there were a few vegetarians eating that day.

It was really unusual, and very nice. The apple gave it a slightly sweet, slightly tart tang and the creamy risotto was really lifted by this. If I was to serve it for non vegetarians think I would put chicken or pork on the side as I feel they would be complemented perfectly by the risotto.

There was enough leftovers for a few meals (I served 20 meals on the day) and so I divided it between a few of us. We are all going to try it with a different side dish and will post the results. One thing we have noticed is that it is much better in flavour if left to sit for an hour or so.... as with so many dishes.

Thank you, have a nice day_________________If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

Well I did it! Took the plunge! Made that mushroom risotto last night, my first attempt at any risotto and it was a blast! I really loved watching the consistency of the rice change and was shocked by how thirsty the rice is!
It tuned out very well, I have some here at work for lunch today and we have plenty left over to make the risotto cakes in a few days to accompany some pork chops.

Dick's response? "Well this is very nice, but I don't get what the big deal is with risotto. Is it worth all that work/" sigh sometimes he just has no soul whatsoever._________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!